Book Review: The 7-10 Split
You’ve caught me deviating slightly from my Ultimate Summer Reading List for a very good reason; I came across The 7-10 Split by Karmen Lee, a striking sapphic romance novel that my heart could not resist!
I love it when marketing does its job because I was mindlessly tapping away through my friends’ Instagram stories when the algorithmic all-knowing being popped a perfectly timed advertisement right on the screen from the publisher Harlequin to promote Karmen Lee’s newest book. I had no idea who Karmen Lee was before that random Thursday afternoon, but now I need every sapphic story she puts out.
To be fair, this should be on the Ultimate Summer Reading List based on the cover alone. It gives us bright summer colors with the retro bowling alley vibe, reminiscent of those late evenings hanging with friends where “the move” leads you to your favorite alley. Along with that pop-off-the-shelf effect, it radiates the richness of dark-skin beauty in the illustration of the two Black main characters. GORGEOUS! No notes.
Rarely do I expect to have to deal with many balls (if any) in my women-loving-women fiction, but the characters’ passion for bowling was an unexpectedly attractive spin to sports romance. Ava Williams and Grace Jones are two competitive bowlers who have to put their pride and decade-long beef aside to usher in a new generation of young women bowlers at their school. The same school in their small town where their childhood friendship saw its demise, and the one that they know call their place of employment as teachers.
To everyone else, Grace is the hometown hero but where Ava is concerned Grace is her too-good nemesis. A best friend who left her behind without thinking twice about their friendship or the disjointing uncertainty of emotions Grace left Ava in after they shared a blissful kiss as teens. On the outside Ava is a colorful burst of sunshine, yet inside she carries a hot fierceness that will draw anyone in — especially someone so madly in love with her blaze, like Grace.
The 7-10 Split is by far one of the cutest romances I’ve snickered the entire way through in months! There’s an evident attraction between Ava and Grace that creates an edginess as a reader in hopes that maybe they will just throw the balls down the lane, and then passionately make out on the coolness of those composite bench-style bowling alley seats. This isn’t one of those excessively spicy stories but if it were I would not have been mad about it.
Reading the flirtatious moments between Ava and Grace is a combination of childlike teasing and brassy competition — a believable replication of witnessing that long-awaited encounter with the “one who got away”. Lee’s writing enhances the characters’ relationship in a way that shows us who each of the women are on their own and how they become a force to be reckoned with when partnered together. Seeing each of the women as daughters, role models, coaches, community members, and in Ava’s case as a sister, I enjoyed reading the lightness of how love finds its way. Sometimes it’s a perfectly curved strike, sometimes it’s a 7-10 split — but there’s always another frame or another game at the end of the lane.
You can purchase a copy of The 7-10 Split by Karmen Lee from Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Bookshop, or anywhere else books are sold.
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